Shada

The long forgotten adventure destined to bring the Doctor face to face with the evil Skagra and his master plan for total omnipotence.  Recording of this 6 part adventure in 1979 was sadly never completed until now-with the aid of Tom Baker, Doctor No. 4.   Now all available filmed and recorded sequences are linked by his brilliant narration allowing BBC Video to unveil Shada in its entirety at last. 

When one of the Artifacts of Gallifrey-a dangerous book dating back to the time of the all-powerful Rasillon-goes missing from his study, Cambridge professor and retired Timelord Dr. Chronotis calls in the aid of the Doctor and Romana.  The Doctor is very worried.  Who knows what powers could be unleashed if the book falls into the wrong hands?  Then the mysterious Skagra arrives, armed with a thought-draining sphere and a scheme for one universal mind.  But first he must get hold of the book.

• "Shada" was the final story penned by Douglas Adams.  He left the series as script editor after the season ended.

• "Shada" is distinguished as the only story filmed, but never transmitted.   It was only partially completed when a strike by BBC camera operators shut down production of many programs.  By the time the strike had been resolved, it was too late to complete this story. 

• John Nathan-Turner, who took over as producer after the season had ended, tried to resurrect the story for the next season, but that proved impractical.  And so, the story was shelved.

• Tom Baker provided linking narration for this special video release.   David Brierley also returned to add the K9 voiceovers.  Keff McCulloch (music composer to several 7th Doctor adventures) provided incidental music.

• Segments of "Shada" were used in the 20th anniversary show "The Five Doctors" when it became apparent that Tom Baker would not be participating in the production.